High noise at ISO 1600 and above. No built-in flash. Menu system is unintuitive and can be slow.

Bottom Line

The Olympus PEN E-PL3 delivers impressive performance when it comes to speed, but is held back by noisy images at higher ISO settings and a kit lens that delivers so-so sharpness at longer focal lengths.

Performance and ConclusionsAside from its sometimes-sluggish menu system, the E-PL3 is fast. It boots and takes a shot in about 0.90 second, which bests both the Sony NEX-C3 and Olympus’s own PEN E-P3. Continuous shooting is also impressive, recording up to 11 images with an average of 0.24 second between shots before the buffer fills. There’s also a low-speed burst mode, which extends the time between shots to 0.35 second, but allows you to capture 18 images before the camera slows down. Shutter lag, the wait between shutter press and image capture, is about 0.2 second, barely slower than the 0.1 recorded by the NEX-C3.

In the PCMag Lab, we use the Imatest software suite to objectively measure image quality. I tested the E-PL3’s kit lens at 14mm, 28mm, and 42mm: the wide, middle, and telephoto end of its zoom range. It fared the best at its widest, recording 2,185 lines per picture height. A score of 1,800 is considered to be a sharp image, showing that the lens performs quite well at this focal length. At 24mm it softened a bit to 1,482 lines, and at 42mm it tested at 1,587 lines. It is common for kit zoom lenses to lose some sharpness at the longest focal length. The 18-55mm zoom included with the Sony NEX series of cameras exhibits softness at 55mm. It is rare to see a zoom lens that performs best at its widest, as zooms generally perform at their best in the middle focal lengths.

The E-PL3’s maximum sensitivity to light is ISO 12800, matching the capabilities of the Sony NEX-C3. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fare that well with noise when pushed to that extreme. Imatest allows 1.5 percent as the maximum allowable noise in an image before it becomes visibly grainy, and the PEN E-PL3 just barely crosses this threshold at ISO 1600. The NEX-C3 was under one percent at the same setting. Noise jumps to a staggering 4.9 percent at ISO 12800, which I’d go as far as to call unusable. This means you’ll get good shots in well-lit environments, but in, say, a dimly lit restaurant, you’ll find yourself struggling to get good shots at ISO 1600 without the flash. Adding a faster lens, like Olympus’s new M. Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f/2 ($799.99), will add a good deal of low-light versatility to the camera.

Video is recorded at 1080i60 resolution in AVCHD format. AVCHD is a popular codec and some home theater devices will read it natively from a memory card, but you’ll need to import the video into editing software in order to view it on your computer or share it on YouTube. The camera can also record 720p30 video in Motion JPEG format, which is saved as an AVI file that can be easily played on a computer or other device. The E-PL3’s HD video quality is on par with that of the NEX-C3 and other Micro Four Thirds cameras.

The camera’s built-in mic, though, picks up sound from all directions, recording the sounds of your hands holding the camera and the sound of the lens zooming in and out. The autofocus mechanism, on the other hand, is nearly silent. Olympus’s External Microphone Adapter Set ($89.99), which includes a stereo microphone and a 3.5mm stereo minijack adapter that plugs into the camera’s accessory port, will give you higher quality audio.

There’s a micro HDMI port to connect the camera to an HDTV for HD image and video playback, and a proprietary USB interface allows you to connect the camera to a computer or to a standard definition television via included breakout cables. The micro HDMI cable isn’t included, so you’ll need to purchase one to connect the camera to your TV. The E-PL3 accepts SD, SDHC, or SDXC memory cards.

The Olympus PEN E-PL3 is a solid compact interchangeable lens camera, but it’s not a great one. The included lens performs well at its widest setting, but softens up a bit as you zoom in. Still, speed and performance here is better than you’ll get with almost any point-and-shoot camera, and the E-PL3 can leverage the entire library of Micro Four Thirds lenses. If you’ve already bought into the Micro Four Thirds system and are considering an upgrade, the E-PL3 is a solid choice if you want a body with a tilting LCD and the option to add an EVF. As it stands, though, no Micro Four Thirds shooter can touch the overall performance, especially in low light, that comes with our Editors’ Choice, the Sony Alpha NEX-C3, which, with its kit lens, happens to be $50 less expensive than the E-PL3.

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Senior digital camera analyst for the PCMag consumer electronics reviews team, Jim Fisher is a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he concentrated on documentary video production. Jim's interest in photography really took off when he borrowed his father's Hasselblad 500C and light meter in 2007. He honed his writing skills at retailer B&H Photo, where he wrote thousands upon thousands of product descriptions, blog posts, and reviews. Since then he's shot with hundreds of camera models, ranging from pocket point-and-shoots to medium format...
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